City's Community & Economic Development reports staff changes and launches MySidewalk and CivicPlus efforts

Amy Oresco delivered the Community & Economic Development quarterly report covering October through December, outlining staffing changes, digital tools and consultant contracts.

Oresco said the department filled a planner vacancy in November and converted a temporary position to a one-year contract running through Dec. 15, 2026, to help scanning/digitization efforts. ‘‘Hopefully by the end of the year we will be 100% paper free,’’ she said. She also introduced planning manager Jen Haugen and associate planner Amrecia Lawless who will lead code amendment presentations to planning commission and council.

The department signed MySidewalk in January; Oresco said the platform aggregates census and GIS data into a community data library and can be embedded on city web pages to provide interactive public-facing reports. CivicPlus permitting software went fully live in December; Oresco acknowledged internal glitches but said most issues are internal and customers are largely unaffected.

Oresco announced two consultant agreements: HWA Geosciences for geotechnical third-party review (for East Hill and south of Twin Ponds projects) and a contract with PACE for critical-area reviews tied to the city's updated Chapter 20.93 critical-area ordinance. She said planning commission appointments for four new commissioners will be presented to council at an upcoming meeting, with staggered start dates in February and April.

Council members asked whether MySidewalk will be public-facing; Oresco said the city is configuring pages and plans to pilot public-facing reports as the department completes training and mapping work.